“Twelve armed militants were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces,” he said.

The military spokesman said 23 explosive devices were defused and 20 vehicles used by militants were seized during the operation.

There was no information about casualties among security forces during the operation.

On Sunday, the Egyptian army said 16 militants were killed and 126 others detained since the operation began on Friday.

Last month, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered the evacuation of a 5-kilometer zone near the Al-Arish airport in northeastern Sinai.

Late last year, ISIS claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on the airport in which an Egyptian army officer was killed and two others were injured.

The Sinai Peninsula has remained the epicenter of a militant insurgency since 2013, when the army ousted Mohamed Morsi — Egypt’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader — in a military coup.